The Boxcar Agent
by marylou
Summary: Tony Stark attends the Alden Charity Dinner for Runaways and sees a familiar face.


"So, where are we going again tonight?" Tony asked, sitting next to Pepper in the car as they drove through the streets of New York.

"Tony, really?" Pepper asked exasperatedly. "I've told you at least four times already. The Alden Charity Dinner for Runaways."

He grimaced. "That's a mouthful."

"And I want you to be on your best behavior tonight. Causing a scene here would create really, really bad publicity."

"Yeah, whatever, I'll try." He waved at hand at her dismissively. "So who is this Alden family, anyway? The name sounds familiar," he mused.

She sighed. "That's because they were one of our biggest investors after you decided that we should stop making and selling weapons. They're a group of four siblings. Violet Alden is the one who runs the charity. I don't really know her very well."

"And the others? What do they do?"

She frowned. "Well, I'm not sure what the oldest, Henry Alden, does. Something with the government maybe? I know that Jessica Alden teaches literature at Yale. I'm actually pretty good friends with her; we meet together for lunch every now and then. The youngest, Benjamin Alden, is a reporter for some newspaper." She waved her hand vaguely.

"Hmm. Sounds boring."

She rolled her eyes at him. "You would say that."

They arrived at the Alden tower and stepped out. "That's Violet Alden over by the door," Pepper pointed. Tony looked over. He saw a small, petite woman with dark hair, wearing a light blue floor length dress.

"I would have expected her to wear purple, considering her name," he muttered. Pepper rolled her eyes.

Once they were in the building, Tony looked around, bored. "What am I supposed to do now?" he whined. "They barely even have any alcohol! It's just a bunch of boring old people here."

"Shut up!" she hissed at him through her teeth. "We're trying to improve your image! I've told you that. That means that you need to behave yourself!"

He groaned, nursing the glass of wine he had grabbed when they passed a waiter. He looked around the room, bored. It was a beautiful room in the Alden's tower in New York, with tall, brilliant chandeliers dangling from the vaulted ceiling. On one side of the large room, floor to ceiling windows looked out over the city. The room was full of people that he vaguely recognized, mostly just older men and women high up in business or the government, with their spouses. Or mistresses, as the case may be.

As he glanced around the room his eyes fell on a man he recognized on the other side of the room wearing a dark blue suit . "Well, well, well," he muttered under his breath. "What's Agent doing here?"

He started moving towards him, weaving through the other party goers. Agent Coulson saw him coming when he was about halfway to him and looked for a moment as if he were actually going to run, but held his ground.

"What are you doing here?" Tony asked brusquely, taking a sip of his wine as he came up next to him.

"Mr. Stark," Coulson responded. "I'm surprised to see you here. I wouldn't think that this was your typical party," he said dryly.

"Pepper dragged me here. What's your excuse?"

Coulson's mouth tightened. "That's not your business, Mr. Stark. Is Pepper around?"

Tony smirked. "You're dodging my question. Why are you here? Been put out to pasture? I wouldn't think that Ms. Alden would be the type of woman that would warrant your attention, but, well, you never can know sometimes."

Coulson opened his mouth to respond, but was interrupted by Violet Alden herself. "Mr. Stark!" she called cheerily, coming up to them with Pepper in tow. "I see you've met my brother."

Tony stared at her in shock while Pepper's jaw dropped. "Your brother?"

Agent glared at his sister. "Henry Alden," he volunteered, holding his hand out to Pepper. She shook it uncertainly.

"Really?" Tony said, smirking. "Pepper mentioned you earlier. Said you did something with the government?"

"You know what I do, Stark," Agent said cooly.

"Oh, yeah, that's right!" Tony slapping his forehead in mock amazement. "I remember you now! You know, I sometimes work with your brother," he said to Violet. "But I never knew he had a sister."

"She knows that I am sometimes forced to work with you," Agent said coldly.

Violet laughed. "Oh, come on, Henry, don't tell me you were using a fake name again!"

"He was, actually," Tony interjected.

"Really?" she said. "What was it?"

"Phillip Coulson."

"Phillip? Where on earth did you get that name?"

Agent reached up and rubbed at his head. "Violet, we really shouldn't be talking about this here. Why don't we go find Jessie. She's here, right?"

"No, no, I want to hear this," Tony said. "It's very interesting. So what was Agent like as a child?" he asked Violet. Her eyes brightened.

"Well, we liked to travel a lot, Grandfather would always take us on trips, and we'd always find little mysteries to solve. I think Henry wanted to be a private detective."

"Really? He did?" Henry sighed deeply, seeming to give up. "Yes, Stark, I did."

"I would have thought that you'd have wanted to be Captain America."

Violet laughed. "Oh, he wanted to be him too! You should have seen his Captain America doll collection."

"Those were action figures," he hissed.

"Do you know how he got into the super secret club that he works for now?"

"Oh no, don't you dare tell that story," Henry warned.

"Oh, come on, Henry, it's a great story! It's also the story of why I started this charity," she confided to Tony and Pepper.

"The Alden Charity for Runaways? Go on," he said. "We're listening." He glanced over at Henry Alden.

"Well," she began. "It all started when our parents died. The only family we had left was our grandfather, but we had never heard very good things about him, so Henry and Jessie decided we should run away . . . "

". . . And then this guy from the government came and talked to grandfather about Henry entering an internship with them when he graduated. Apparently he had heard about us in the newspaper and he had kept an eye on Henry after that. I think Grandfather helped get Henry that job. He had a lot of influential connections." Her face grew sad, remembering. "They offered Jessie a spot as well, but she turned it down. Said she'd always wanted to be a teacher. But Henry agreed, and went to a training center that I'm not supposed to know about, but I do anyway because Benny and I stowed away in the trunk of his car once. And that's how he got started with his job," she concluded.

"Wow," Pepper said. Tony just continued laughing. He'd been chuckling throughout almost the entire story. "I can't believe it!" he gasped. "You ran away from home and lived in a boxcar in the woods! That sounds almost like it could be a children's book!" He leaned over, laughing.

Pepper's mouth twitched. "You know, Phil, I can't really picture you doing something like that. You seem too responsible."

Violet laughed. "Oh, he was still responsible, believe me, even living in the woods."

"Excuse me," Henry said, drawing away from the others and pulling a phone out of his pocket. He spoke to someone for a few moments before coming back to the others.

"Sorry, Vi," he said, giving her a kiss on the cheek. "I've got to go."

"Someone else to stalk?" Tony asked sarcastically.

"Not a word to anyone about this, Stark," Henry said, giving him a firm glare.

Tony smirked. "Off course, Agent. You can trust me."

Henry rolled his eyes. He gave Pepper a nod goodbye and left.

Tony watched him leave. "Well, I don't think I ever expected that," he remarked.

* * *

 **So . . . I have a confession to make. I've never actually seen any of the Marvel movies, including Iron Man or the Avengers. But I have read a lot of Avengers fanfiction, so I think that makes up for it.**


End file.
